Israel PM asks war Cabinet minister Benny Gantz not to quit after ultimatum

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on June 8 asked war Cabinet minister Benny Gantz not to resign, after threats to quit over the lack of post-war strategy for the Gaza Strip.

Mr Gantz said in May

he would resign from the emergency body

if Mr Netanyahu did not approve a post-war plan for Gaza by June 8.

“I call on Benny Gantz - do not leave the emergency government. Don’t give up on unity,” Mr Netanyahu said, on social media platform X.

Mr Gantz cancelled a news conference that was scheduled for June 8, his office said, after the Israeli military said

security forces had rescued four hostages alive from Gaza

earlier in the day.

Without directly addressing speculations he had been planning to resign, Mr Gantz appeared on Israeli television on the evening of June 8 after the captives were freed.

“Alongside the justified joy over this achievement, it should not be forgotten that all the challenges Israel is facing... have remained as they were,” Mr Gantz said.

“Therefore, I say to the prime minister and the entire leadership - today, too, we must look responsibly at what is right and how we can continue from here.”

His centrist National Union Party submitted a bill last week to dissolve the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and hold early elections.

Mr Gantz has been seen as a favourite to form a coalition in the event that Mr Netanyahu’s government is brought down and early elections are called.

The former army chief, one of Mr Netanyahu’s main rivals before he joined the war Cabinet, had said this week that returning hostages from Gaza was a “priority”.

The army said Ms Noa Argamani, 26, Mr Almog Meir Jan, 22, Mr Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Mr Shlomi Ziv, 41, were rescued from central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp on June 8.

All four had been kidnapped by Hamas militants from

the Nova music festiva

l on Oct 7, the military said in a statement, adding the four had been taken to hospital and were in “good medical condition”.

During

their Oct 7 attack on southern Israel,

militants took 251 hostages, 116 of whom now remain in the Palestinian territory, including 41 the army says are dead.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliatory bombardments and ground offensive on Gaza have killed 36,801 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. AFP